Colorado Suspect Had Easy Access to Assault Rifle, Ammo

James Holmes had a 100-round drum
magazine clipped into the Smith & Wesson (SWHC) semi-automatic rifle
police say he fired into a crowded Colorado theater.

Jared Lee Loughner was accused of killing six people last
year and injuring more with help from a 33-round magazine, the
bullet holder extending from the grip of his Glock 19.

High-capacity accessories like these would have been
illegal a decade ago.

Today, there is little difficulty amassing a military-style
arsenal since the 2004 lapse of the federal assault weapon ban.
And tougher gun laws probably wouldn’t have prevented Holmes
from killing, Colorado’s governor said yesterday.

“If there were no assault weapons available and no this or
no that, this guy is going to find something, right?” Colorado
Governor John Hickenlooper said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“He’s going to know how to create a bomb.”

Debate over gun control in the U.S. regularly unfolds after
high-profile shootings, such as the federal proposal to require
background checks at gun shows after the Columbine High School
shootings in Colorado in 1999 and when firearms lobbyists pushed
state legislatures to allow concealed weapons on college
campuses after the massacre at Virginia Tech University in 2007.
Still, other than a law aimed at improving state reporting for
federal background checks, there have been no major U.S. gun
regulations since the 1994 assault weapon ban prohibited 19
military-style guns and magazines holding more than 10 bullets.

Federal Ban

President Barack Obama promised to reinstate the ban during
his 2008 campaign, and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney signed an assault weapon ban as Massachusetts governor.
Obama hasn’t mentioned gun control since the Colorado shootings,
and Romney says he doesn’t believe new laws would “make a
difference in this type of tragedy.”

“Our challenge is not the laws, our challenge is people
who, obviously, are distracted from reality and do unthinkable,
unimaginable, inexplicable things,” Romney said today in an
interview with CNBC. He said he signed the Massachusetts assault
weapon ban because both sides agreed.

“Where there are opportunities for people of reasonable
minds to come together and find common ground, that’s the kind
of legislation I like,” he said.

Mixed Results

The federal ban had mixed results, leading to less use of
assault weapons in crimes and greater utilization of other
firearms, according to a 2004 Department of Justice report.

Existing checks and regulations failed to flag Holmes --
accused of killing 12 people and injuring 58 others in the
Aurora, Colorado, theater -- for state or federal authorities
because he avoided buying handguns within five days at the same
store and never committed prior offenses that would have raised
an alarm during required background checks, according to a
federal official who asked for anonymity and wasn’t authorized
to speak publicly.

Use of high-capacity magazines and avoiding state and
federal checks “is a worst-case scenario for gun-rights
defenders,” said Richard Feldman, a former political organizer
for the Fairfax, Virginia-based National Rifle Association, a 4-million member gun-rights organization.

“It’s not that the system didn’t work,” Feldman said.
“He wasn’t in the system.”

Calls for Ban

Elected officials, including New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg
and U.S. Representative Ed Perlmutter, a Colorado Democrat, said
yesterday the ban should be re-instated.

“We spend all our time talking about tax returns and
gaffes and things like that,” Bloomberg, founder and majority
owner of Bloomberg LP, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “This
is one of those issues, along with a handful of others, that
really matters to the American public.”

Perlmutter, whose district includes Aurora, said
reinstating the ban is a starting point.

“We ought to be taking a look at how this guy was able to
accumulate so much ammunition,” Perlmutter said. “He had
enough ammunition for a small army. There’s something wrong
about that.”

Steve Schmidt, a Republican consultant who was chief
strategist for John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008, said
gun control is “an absolutely settled issue.”

‘Powerful’ NRA

“People absolutely will not take on the NRA,” Schmidt
said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s the most powerful
interest group in Washington.”

Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said the U.S.
should “re-instill values in what we’re teaching our
children.”

“This isn’t an issue about guns,” Johnson said on “Fox
News Sunday.” “This is just really an issue about sick,
demented individuals.”

On July 20, the NRA said in a statement it wouldn’t comment
“until all the facts are known.” A message left for the NRA’s
public relations department yesterday wasn’t returned.

“It’s time for us to address and enforce the gun laws that
we have,” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican,
told reporters in Trenton today. “I am a little bit disturbed
by politicians who in the immediate aftermath of this type of
tragedy try to grandstand, and I’m not going to be one of those
people.”

Holmes had more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition, Aurora
Police Chief Dan Oates said at a July 21 news conference.

He spent more than $15,000 the past several months buying
ammunition, firearms and explosives, said a law-enforcement
official who lacked authorization to speak publicly and asked
for anonymity. Holmes had the 100-round magazine in a Smith &
Wesson M&P .223 caliber rifle, the official said.

Surveillance Video

Surveillance video shows Holmes picking up 150 pounds of
ammunition at a FedEx Corp. (FDX) outlet in Colorado, the official
said. Investigators have interviewed a United Parcel Service
Inc. (UPS) driver who says Holmes had 90 packages delivered to his
workplace on the University of Colorado medical campus, the
official said.

A shipping label from BulkAmmo.com, an Internet ammunition
site, was found in the trash bins outside Holmes’s apartment,
the official said.

The retailer, which has a St. Louis mailing address on its
website, was “actively assisting in the investigation,” Oliver
D. Adams, an attorney the store, said in a statement.

Authorities also found that 30 aerial shells -- softball-sized black-plastic objects used in fireworks displays -- had
been turned into hand grenades, the official said. Enough
gunpowder and gasoline were discovered to engulf in flames two
floors of his apartment building, the law-enforcement official
said.

’Novelty Item’

A 100-round magazine is mostly a “novelty item” that has
“no practical use,” said Cameron Hopkins, former editor-in-chief of American Handgunner, a San Diego-based magazine for
firearms enthusiasts. Hopkins said the gun magazines are “too
unreliable, too bulky and too cumbersome” for use by military
or law enforcement.

“If zombies were coming over the horizon and I had to
defend my house and I wanted to massacre thousands of zombies, I
still would not use a 100-round magazine,” Hopkins said. “I
would have a whole bunch of 30s.”

The 6,000 rounds of ammunition Holmes is said to have
bought wouldn’t have set off alarm bells for most ammo dealers,
said Jeremiah Johnson, owner of National Match Armorer, a
Bairoil, Wyoming-based ammo retailer.

“It’s nothing that would raise eyebrows,” Johnson said in
an interview yesterday at a gun show in Loveland, Colorado.

The gun show was held at the Loveland Outlet Mall, where
outside the shopping center oversized U.S. and Colorado flags
flew at half-staff. Inside, hundreds of firearms were on sale
along with stun guns, pepper spray and clothing, including a
black baseball hat printed with a blue dove and the words
“Jesus Prince of Peace.”

“A lot of guys come in and they might buy 5,000 rounds of
this, 5,000 rounds of that and 5,000 rounds of that,” Johnson
said. “Not only does it not throw up red flags, they’ll
probably get a discount.”